1796 Emperor of China Quan or Madarin Copperplate Print

Sir George Leonard Staunton's Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China by the British artist William Alexander (1767-1816) who also served as the principal curator of antiquities at the British Museum. Alexander accompanied Earl George Macartney on his groundbreaking 1793 visit to China as the first British envoy to that nation. Engraved after Alexander's original pencil sketches and watercolours, original examples of these prints are quite scarce, and represent some of the first truly accurate depictions of China by a western artist. This copperplate measures 12 x 15.5 inches.